Murray Beith Murray is a leading Scottish private client law firm.
For over 170 years we have specialised in meeting the legal, financial and administrative needs of individuals and families, family trusts, charities and private companies.
A 65-year-old man has appeared in court in Edinburgh after admitting that he forged a relative’s signature on a fake will, reports the Evening News.
We have been living in the “digital age” since the 1970s but, with the law on Wills predating this era -The Succession (Scotland) Act 1964, in Scotland, and The Wills Act 1837, in England - it’s fair to say that the rules for creating a Will are more than a little behind the times. With many aspects of our lives now conveniently managed using technology, there is no doubt that we increasingly expect to be able to do so. However, while technology is widely used to prepare hard copy Wills, there is, as yet, no recognition of electronically executed or stored Wills. With The Law Commission of England and Wales currently consulting on the introduction of Electronic Wills, it may not be long until Will writing catches up with the times.
The 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive took effect in the UK on Monday 26 June and introduces new procedures that must be followed when carrying out Anti-Money Laundering checks. The legislation has the effect of increasing the requirements for identification checks on trusts in particular and makes it a requirement that trusts are registered.
In June last year, I posted a Blog regarding European Parliament proposals under draft anti-money laundering rules for public registries of trusts. (See http://www.murraybeith.co.uk/blog?id=15). The terms of the EU’s Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive were finally agreed at the end of 2014 and the good news is that these are much less far reaching than previous drafts of the Directive.
